Willy Wayne Andre Pepion
Willy Pepion, 22, was a grocery store worker whose mother, Wilma Fleury, remembers him as her youngest child, soft-spoken and a terrific cook. In May 2020 he was held at the Blackfeet Adult Detention Center in Browning, Montana, a BIA-operated jail, after being cleared by a hospital where he had been treated for a head injury from a blow with a shovel. According to the autopsy report, a cracked skull and subdural hematoma caused his death, and a federal report lists the case as a homicide. His mother and his sister, Laura-Su Pepion, say his cries for help were not acted on, and a federal report says the policy requiring checks every 30 minutes was not followed and that logs falsely recorded checks. A forensic pathologist said he should have been further evaluated before being cleared.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody (disputed; neglect alleged). A federal Interior Department report says a shovel blow fractured his skull before he was jailed and that staff skipped the required checks, while his sister disputes how the case was closed.
Reported by: Interior Department report (outside investigators); autopsy report; his mother; his sister Laura-Su Pepion (family or their lawyers).
Sources (4)
- Indian Affairs promised to reform tribal jails. NPR found death, neglect and disrepair
- Indian Affairs Promised To Reform Tribal Jails. We Found Death, Neglect And Disrepair
- 'A national disgrace': years after promised reforms, people keep dying at federal tribal jails
- 'They just didn't care': Families' grief renewed as Interior reviews deaths at tribal jails